Gusto Group donates £30,000 to 36 charities across Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire

Workers at a group of companies have voted and selected 36 charities from Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to receive a share of £30,000.

The Gusto Group, which owns Gusto Construction, Gusto Homes, Rototek, and Studio-G created the Gusto community fund during the pandemic, with the aim of supporting projects and charities in the area.

The community fund is administered by the Collingham Community Trust and gives the group’s 160 employees as well as the recent Gusto Homes homeowners a chance to nominate and vote for a cause close to their heart.

The money distributed, this year’s amount being £30,000, is divided considering the number of votes each had. Each vote is worth £250 and the maximum given to a charity or project is £2,000.

Steff Wight, the Gusto Group chairman said: “It is just brilliant that the work is done by all these charities and organisations across the area.

“A lot of them are quite small charities so it is a great opportunity to get some publicity about what they do and for them to connect with each other.

“There is so much good work that goes in the community so it’s been a really inspiring day.

“We decided as a company that we wanted to support local projects and charities and we created the Community Fund through covid and has been going ever since.

“It is part of our profits from the business that we donate to good causes and we wanted to support causes that are based in communities where our staff and customers live.”

On Tuesday (December 3), the team at Gusto Group presented cheques at their premises in Rototek Worksop, Rototek Newark and Gusto House in Collingham.

At the presentations, there was a chance to hear personal stories and connections behind each chosen charity.

Louise Sinclair, chief executive at Newark Beaumond House Hospice Care said: “We rely on so many donations to contribute to the running costs because we get small amounts compared to what we have to raise each year.

“All the donations from schemes such as this are really helpful to keep patients, families and careers supported at the most difficult times.”

The number of causes that were supported by the group ranged from animal and wildlife rescue, education and dementia to end-of-life support, ambulance service and sea cadets.

Christine Davidson from Newark Dementia Carers Group said: “How do we carry on providing these things for people without the goodness of the local firms and people like that?

“We are very lucky that we get some donations to pay for the room and give a little bit of a discount when people go on a trip or holidays.

“It is needed, it is absolutely a need, people need care and need getting away from the boredom of looking after people.”

Newark’s Salvation Army Toy Run took place last Sunday (December 1) and despite having been a success, captain Sarah O’Grady highlighted the importance of the funding for the charity.

She said: “It is rightly important, at the moment from across the country families are struggling, people who were living quite comfortably are now finding that they have to tighten their belts so people are suddenly realising that life is getting more tricky.

“They may be able to support their own family but asking them to donate toys to other families can be a struggle so we are really reliant yes on the general public and people have been really generous, but what we receive is never enough for the number of children that have.

“Funds like we got from Gusto allow us to go and buy the gifts for children that we don’t have donations for.

“It breaks my heart to think that any child would wake up on Christmas morning and think that Santa hasn’t been.

“This kind of funding is really important to make sure that we can meet every child and every family’s needs this Christmas.”

Jo Plumber, of Halfway Dog Rescue Centre said: “We don’t get any money coming in from the Government, we are not a registered charity, so we don’t get big donations, so every little helps.

“It is a big donation we are getting now but the costs and maintenance of the rescue centre is way more expensive than it seems.”

Sub-lieutenant Simon Cullen from Newark Sea Cadets said: “We have gone through a massive increase in numbers, no recruitment from us but all organic, we went from 33 cadets to 56 cadets.

“This donation has been placed at the perfect time, we are leading to boating season and we have got a small fleet of boats and this grant is enabling us to go out and buy more equipment for the cadets to get on the water, ready for the season, plus some other bits of equipment.”

The 36 charities received different amounts depending on the number of votes: Beaumond House Hospice £500; Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice £2,000’ Children’s Bereavement Centre £750; Collingham Food Pantry £500; Collingham Pre-School £250; Collingham Village Care £750; Dementia UK £500; Halfway Home Dog Rescue, Collingham £1,500; In Sam’s Name £1,000; Jerry Green Dog Rescue £750; Kingsmill Hospital Butterfly Room and Child Bereavement £1,750; Lincoln Cat Care £1,000; Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance £1,250; McMillan Cancer Support £1,750; Newark Dementia Carers Group £500; Newark Emmaus Trust £250; Newark Hockey Club £250; Newark Mencap – The Avenue £500; Newark Sea Cadets £250.

North Clifton Primary School £500; Reach Learning Disabilities Care £500; Rossington Juniors FC £250; Shine Lincs £250; St Barnabas Hospice £500; Stepping Stones £750; On Freedoms Wings - Lancaster Bomber A46 £2000; Collingham Methodist Church £2000; Newark Community Support £250; The Well Homeless Support, Newark £500; Valley Young Person’s Centre, Worksop £500; Wildline Wildlife Sanctuary £250; Winthorpe and Coddington Tigers Youth Football Club £500; Worksop Men In Sheds £1000; The Salvation Army Christmas Toy Appeal £1,000; Collingham Parish Council - Best Kept Village Committee £2,000; Barnby Road Community Wellbeing Group £1,250.

Gusto Group have donated over £130,000 to the community in the four years that Gusto Community Fund has been running.